Customer support is an integral part of many products sold today. In the case of computers and computing systems, such devices are often sold with a wide variety of software and hardware options. Third-party add-ons provide the possibility of an almost infinite array of combinations available on any one computer. Because of the almost infinite array of combinations, many manufacturers only supply a bare minimum of documentation and, instead, rely upon telephone/Internet “help desks” as a means of supporting their customers.
In order to provide support, many organizations distribute one or more telephone numbers or Internet addresses (e.g., e-mail addresses, URLs, etc.) for use in placing calls requesting support. Calls to those destinations are typically received and distributed to agents of the organization by an automatic call distributor (ACD).
While the distribution of calls to agents is effective, the quality of support is often uneven. While some agents may be very well trained in the subject matter of a call, other agents may have very little knowledge.
As a consequence, a customer may be routed to a first agent who may ask questions and offer a few suggestions. The customer may follow the suggestions and if the suggested steps succeed, the customer may hang up feeling satisfied.
On the other hand, where the initial suggestions do not succeed, the agent may need to identify and transfer the call to a more experienced agent. If a more experienced agent is available, then the agent may offer more suggestions or ask the customer to repeat the previous steps. If a more experienced agent is busy, or otherwise not available, then the customer may be asked to await a return call. This process may be repeated any of a number of times until a solution is found.
In the mean time, the customer may experience a growing sense of frustration in the level of support that he/she is receiving. If the problem is critical to the business of the customer, the delays may result in economic hardship and loss of business to both the customer and to the organization providing the customer support. Because of the importance of customer support, a need exists for better methods for providing customer support.